Egypt says it ‘can’t take part’ in displacement of Palestinians

Cairo — Egypt will not participate in the displacement of Palestinians, an “act of injustice” that would threaten Egyptian security, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said on Wednesday in his first public response to US President Donald Trump’s call for Cairo to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.

Sisi said at a press conference with visiting Kenyan President William Ruto that Egypt would work with Trump to reach peace between Israel and Palestinians based on a two-state solution.

“Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security,” Sisi said.

“The deportation or displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice in which we cannot participate.”

Trump said on Saturday that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza, which he called a “demolition site” after 15 months of Israeli bombardment that made most of its 2.3-million people homeless.

Sisi said that if he asked the Egyptian people on Trump’s suggestion, they would take to the streets to reject the displacement of Palestinians.

“The two-state solution is a historical right that can’t be bypassed,” Sisi said, adding that Trump “is able to achieve that goal for a just and permanent peace in the Middle East”.

Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, territory they want to form part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and repeatedly rejected by neighbouring Arab states since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. The foreign ministries of Egypt and Jordan have both rejected Trump’s suggestion in recent days.

Trump said earlier that he would speak with Sisi over the weekend, but instead the US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke with his Egyptian counterpart on Gaza without a mention of Trump’s plan.

Reuters